A Place to Stay
by Zora4995
Summary: Set in AtS: Just after the conversation between Angel and Cordelia at the end of "Spin the Bottle" and beginning of "Apocalypse Nowish" and BtVS: between "Help" and "Selfless." After Cordy returns to AI, Angel sends Connor to go live with Buffy in Sunnydale.
1. Chapter 1

"Is everything ready?" Willow asked.

"As ready as it'll ever be," Buffy replied, sighing. "I just can't believe it. I mean, one second I don't even know he _has_ a kid, and the next it's like 'Hey, can my eighteen-year-old son with psychopathic tendencies come and live with you?' And of course, _I_ have to be all like 'Sure, I would_ love _to deal with my ex-boyfriend's kid who I didn't even know existed until about two minutes ago, even though there's a slight chance that he'll _kill us all _in our _sleep_!'"

"I'm sensing a bit of tension here."

"A bit? I mean, we don't even_ know _this kid."

"Not to mention the whole creepy _your ex-boyfriend has a son who's only a few years younger than you _thing."

"Ick. I didn't even think of that. I was kinda focusing more on the _vampires can't have kids so how does he even exist _thing."

"And then there's Darla, who Angel _killed,_ like poof, gone, coming back."

"And Angel _sleeping_ with her. I mean, what was he _thinking_?"

"Oh yes, definitely tension-y."

"So," Xander said as he and Anya entered the living room, "I think we've Connor-proofed everything. Anything else you need me to do?"

"_Connor-proofed?_" Willow asked.

"We hid all the dangerous stuff that a sociopathic half-demon teenager might use to blow us all up," Anya explained.

"Thank you for that, sweetie," Xander said. "Because we weren't all stressed out enough without thinking about the kid potentially blowing us all up."

"Well, she asked. I was just being honest. And why are we taking care of him in the first place? I mean,_ Angel's _his father. If he can't deal with Connor then it's not our problem."

"Try telling Buffy that," Dawn muttered from beside the stairs.

"I just did," Anya replied. "I said it, and she's right there."

"You know what I meant."

"Actually, I don't. And it would be nice if you didn't just assume that I understand what you're talking about."

"Ahn," Xander began.

"Don't you 'Ahn' me, I'm tired of everyone expecting me to understand everything!"

"Well you have been human for a couple of years," Willow pointed out. "Maybe you could try picking up on how we do things, instead of bugging everyone to death with your rude commentary and stupid questions."

With that, Anya and Willow began shouting at each other while Xander tried to pull them apart and Dawn tried to defend Willow.

"_Everybody shut up!_" Buffy shouted over the noise. The others quieted immediately. "Look, I've already said yes to Angel, and Connor is already on his way here. He will arrive here tomorrow morning and find us ready to _welcome him here_. Any questions?" No dared say a word. "Good. Now then, I'm going out on patrol. Anyone want to come?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Xander, duck!" Willow shouted as a vamp swung at his head. Xander staked the vamp and turned to see another one come up from behind her and sink his teeth into her neck.

"Willow!" Xander shouted. He tried to run towards her, but a blonde vampire jumped in his way and attacked him. "Buffy!" He called between trading blows with the vamp. "Help Will!"

Buffy ran towards her friend, but was intercepted by two more vamps. She tried to fight them, but she was distracted by Willow and they had caught her off guard. She still beat them, but they slowed her down enough that Willow had collapsed. Buffy was running towards her, cursing the uneven ground over the vamps' graves, when the vampire who was draining Willow exploded in a poof of dust. A teenage boy with brown hair and blue eyes stood over Will, a stake in his hand. He knelt next to Willow, took off his jacket and used it to help stop the blood.

"Thanks," Buffy said to him.

"You're welcome."

"So you'd be Connor, then?"

"And you'd be Buffy."

"Yeah."

Connor looked at Willow. "She needs help."

"I'll call an ambulance. Xander?" She looked around for her friend.

"Here," he answered. "I'm alright. What about Will?"

"Vamp bit her, Connor dusted it. Can you take him back to the house while I wait for the ambulance?"

"Sure. Come on, kid." He gave Connor a hand up and began walking back to the Summers house.


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn woke up to sunlight pouring in through the living room windows. "Oh, joy," she mumbled, "waking up on the couch. Because that _always _ends well." She got up and stretched before walking into the kitchen. "Hey Buffy. You find that guy, Con-Holy crap!"

Staring at her was a boy who looked about her age, and he was obviously trying not to laugh. "Expecting someone else?"

"Who are you, and _what_ are you doing in my _kitchen_?"

"Connor, and standing."

Dawn instantly disliked him. The way he smirked at her, like he knew something she didn't, it bugged her. And he had that stance about him, like Buffy did, as if something were about to burst in and attack him.

"So, you going to talk to me, or would you prefer to keep gaping at me."

"I'm not gaping." Dawn said, realizing with embarrassment that she _had_ in fact been staring at him with her mouth hanging wide open.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay, if you say so."

Dawn blushed and ran out of the room, back up to her bedroom.

...

_"Dawn!"_ Amanda hissed at her.

"What?" Dawn's eyes flew open.

"You were drooling. I thought I'd better wake you up before Ms. Helton noticed."

"Thanks." Dawn was kind of surprised. She didn't know Amanda very well, and they'd never really been friends. From what she'd heard, Amanda was both shy and prone to violence. _Oh well, _she thought. _Pretty much everyone at my house is violent sometimes, and she didn't really seem all that shy._

After class, Dawn waited at the door for Amanda. "Hey, you wanna meet up after school? We can study for the quiz tomorrow."

"Sure," Amanda said, surprised yet pleased. "We'll meet in the courtyard?"

"Kay. See you then."

"See ya."

Dawn went off down the hallway, towards her locker, and suddenly remembered what she had been dreaming about. _Oh no,_ she thought. _God, no._ She had been standing in a beautiful room, when all of a sudden Connor came up behind her and kissed her. She began to blush just thinking about it. She remembered what Amanda had said in class. "You were drooling." Drooling. Over Connor. She began having a silent argument with herself.

_But I hate him. He's annoying, and insufferable, and a know-it-all._

_A cute know-it-all._

_No, not _cute._ Cut it out!_

_His big, blue eyes._

_His annoying, nasally voice._

_His shining brown hair._

_His stupid smirk._

_He's gorgeous._

_He's Angel's son!_

That settled it. No way was she crushing on the guy who had been that close to being her nephew. That was just gross.


	4. Chapter 4

Willow walked in to see the kid from last night (who she assumed was Connor), Xander and Anya sitting on the floor around the coffee table in the living room. They appeared to be playing The Game of Life. Connor looked up at her. "Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah," she replied. "I mean, a little light-headed, but other than that I'll be fine. Thanks for the whole saving me thing."

"No problem. You're Willow, right?"

"Yep, that's me."

Connor nodded and looked back at the game with interest. He started suddenly as Anya jumped to her feet with a whoop and threw her stacks of money in the air. Anya noticed his look of alarm and was quick to reassure him.

"You see, Xander's teeny-weeny plastic car thingie crossed this line here, so the game is over. And thanks to my skill in moneymaking, I have substantially more cash than him, which means that I win. The noises I'm making are a celebratory ritual, often performed by humans when they are excited or happy about something. See, right now I'm showing my excitement and happiness over winning and crushing Xander like he crushed my heart."

"Ahn, I _said_ I'm sorry about that."

"You left me at the _altar_, Xander! Do you really think _sorry_ is gonna cut it?!"

"Okay," Willow said. "I'm just going to cut in here before you two get all worked up and wind up breaking something... or some_one._ Hey Connor, want to go to like, a park or something?"

"Sure," he said, standing up quickly. _"Thank you," _he hissed as they left the room.

Willow smiled. "You're welcome. They aren't always like that, you know. Well, I guess _they_ are, but most of us aren't."

"I know. You fight demons, every day and every night. And you aren't on some mission of redemption or whatever. You fight them 'cause you can, 'cause you know it makes the world a better place, not just 'cause you used to be evil."

"Actually, that's not exactly true. Last year, my girlfriend died. Tara. I loved her so much, but this guy came along and he tried to kill Buffy. He shot a gun and..." she sniffed, blinking back tears.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright," Willow inhaled deeply. "The point is, I went insane. I took all the power out of these books of dark magic, and then sucked all the magic energy Giles got from this coven. I had more power than any human was ever meant to have, and I went crazy with it. Like dark hair, black eyes, veiny skin, trying to destroy the world kind of crazy."

"You lost someone you loved. I know what that's like. It can do things to you, the need for vengeance boiling in your blood. It can make you do stuff you'll regret for the rest of your life. It eats you alive and when it's gone, it's like there's nothing left. Just... a shell."

Willow saw the sadness in his eyes, and realized how old he looked. He had been through so much, grown up so quickly. _He never had a childhood_, she realized. _He's been fighting this war against evil for his entire life. He never had time for a childhood._ The thought of it almost brought tears to Willow's eyes. She got herself together, and decided that she would just have to give him a childhood herself.

"Come on," she said, taking his hand.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm going to take you somewhere, and for once in your life you are going to be a normal teenager."

"But I can't be. I need to fight the demons. It's the only way for those other people to go on living their normal lives."

"One day, Connor. You just get to be one of them for _one_ day. Consider it a gift."


End file.
